The Neiman Marcus Mocha Cookies recipe is originally from a Neiman Marcus cookbook. In the book they just call them chocolate chip or chocolate chunk cookies, but I put “mocha” in the title as a reminder that this is the recipe with instant espresso powder in the dough and not to be confused with this one, which is the urban myth cookie (ground oats, Hershey Bar, etc). This is the real Neiman Marcus cookie recipe, originally sent to me by Katy G., who added the weights.
Mocha Cookies Without Espresso
Since first posting this recipe, I’ve made these with and without the espresso powder. I like them better without it, but since I’m calling them Mocha Cookies, I figured I should start adding it. If you enjoy the flavor of coffee in your baked goods, you will love these! It really adds a kick. My family likes the version with the espresso.
Gluten-Free Neiman Marcus Mocha Cookies
I’ve also started making these with King Arthur Measure for Measure gluten-free flour blend. It works perfectly and makes the texture a tad bit chewier. The cookie in the photo with the napkin (first one) is gluten-free.
Other Things I’ve Done to These Cookies
It’s a chocolate chip cookie recipe, so of course I’ve modified it over the years. The recipe card below is how Katy wrote it, but here are the things I’ve done to make the cookies different.
- Butter — This recipe works well with American style butter, Irish butter or Plugra. The big cookie in the first photo was made with KerryGold.
- Brown Sugar — The cookies are high in brown sugar, so they’re fairly chewy. I’ve used dark brown sugar instead of light. The dark brown sugar version was good, especially when I left out the espresso. However, I think if you are using the espresso you should stick with the golden brown sugar before trying with dark.
- Dove Chocolate or Any Chopped Bar — The Mocha Cookie dough doesn’t have a lot of butter, so chopped chocolate bars work well. The dough soaks up any excess fat from the chocolate. I’ve tested with Dove, Lindt and Ghirardelli.
- Cookie Size — The original recipe calls for walnut size balls of dough. If you use walnuts size balls of dough you should get around 24 to 26 cookies. You can also make the cookies double that size using a large cookie scoop or a quarter cup measure. In that case you should get 12 to 13 cookies.
- Flour — This isn’t a change, but rather a reminder to weigh the flour. The measurement from the book is 1 3/4 cup and 220 grams. If you use the volume measurement, stir the flour well and aerate it before measuring.
Neiman Marcus Mocha Cookies
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup 1 stick unsalted butter, cool room temp (115 grams)
- 1 cup very tightly packed golden brown sugar (can use dark or a mixture of both) (220 grams)
- 3 tablespoons granulated sugar (30 grams)
- 1 1/2 teaspoons instant espresso powder optional
- 1 large egg
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour (measure with a light hand or weigh) (220 grams) — best to weigh!
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
- 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.
- Line baking sheets with parchment.
- Cream butter and sugars.
- Beat in espresso powder and vanilla.
- Add egg and beat until thoroughly smooth.
- Add dry ingredients and stir to combine.
- Scoop into very large walnut sized balls. Flatten slightly.
- Bake for about 20 minutes, until set and very slightly golden around edges.
- Alternatively, you can just bake them at 375 for 8 to 10 minutes.
Claire
Oh my word, I made these this weekend for my dad and they are SOOO good! I will be making them again sometime. Perfect texture. And my brother’s girlfriend, who doesn’t like coffee, kept the one’s I gave to her instead of sending them home with my brother…much to my parents’ chagrin!
Lindsay Weiss
Hmmmm…these are interesting. Just made them–they are a little too dry for me I think (but perhaps I had a heavy hand with the flour today? I didn’t weigh) The dough tasted fabulous and I loved the espresso flavor, but it mellowed quite a bit during baking. I almost can’t taste it now.
On the up side, they look fabulous. Nice and thick with crackly tops!
Katy
Anonymous,
Use fine grain sea salt or regular supermarket salt for baking. Kosher salt measures differently so is less salty teaspoon for teaspoon. Coarse grain sea salt is for finishing savory food, with the exception of things like salted caramels or Dorie Greenspan’s World Peace cookies.
Anna
Alison, if I can think of any more festive desserts for this weekend, I will let you know. This morning I’m going to make some cashew bar cookies. They’re not very festive, but I’m dying to try them.
Anonymous, thanks for the comment! It’s nice to hear from people who’ve used some of the recipes here. As for sea salt, honestly, I usually just use Morton Kosher or plain old table salt. If I’m lucky enough to have it an a recipe calls for sea salt, I use Maldon. It’s kind of coarse, but not nearly as coarse as diamond crystals.
I might treat myself to a jar of sea salt today.
Alison
Thanks for that information! It is freezing here this weekend so no springtime lemon things for us this year. We do a leg of lamb and this year I think I will do a Seville marmalade tart which is good. That ham in coke from Nigella is good! Happy easter
Anonymous
love your blog, i use it all the time to get recipe ideas when im in a baking mood. these cookies look fantastic, and i cant wait to try them; however, one question: when you say sea salt, do you mean the coarse, large grain salt?
Katy
Anna,
I’m so glad you enjoyed these cookies! I’ve been making them for years. Similar to Jacques Torres’. I was compelled to send the recipe to respond to all the wasted efforts on Levain cookies. I arrived in NY yesterday and went right to Bouchon Bakery to get my chocolate chunk cookie this morning, only to discover that they’ve added a new cookie! Dark chocolate chocolate chunk. Incredible. And they have linzers, oatmeal, the aforementioned chocolate chunk, florentines,and peanut butter filled chocolate cookie eggs.
By the way, the NM book has an outstanding oatmeal cookie recipe. Thick and chewy with a cripsy edge like the chocolate chip.
Here it is. They are fantastic with chopped dates.
Neiman’s Oatmeal Cookies
Ingredients:
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
1 cup (240g) golden brown sugar
1 cup (200g) superfine sugar
2 wholes eggs, cool room temp
1 teaspoon pure almond extract
2 cups (280g) unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups old fashioned rolled oats
1 1/2 cups raisins*
Directions:
1: Line sheets with parchment.
2: Preheat oven to 300’.
3: Sift together flour, soda and salt.
4: Beat together butter and sugars. Beat in eggs and extract. Stir in flour mixture. Stir in oats and raisins.
5: Scoop very large, golf ball sized rounds onto parchment.
6: Bake for about 20 minutes, until golden. A bit longer for crisper cookies.
7: * or chopped pitted dates, dried cherries or cranberries, or dark or milk chocolate chips or chunks, or Guittard butterscotch chips, use vanilla in place of almond extract, and/or 1 tsp cinnamon or 1/2 tsp nutmeg
Anna
Steph, thanks for testing the cookies with instant coffee granules. I’m happy to hear they work.
Alison, we make hot cross buns here. I tend to bake lemony things at Easter or desserts with Springtime colors. Other people make more brunch type things like deviled eggs, scones, quiches, etc. And then of course, there’s lamb and ham. Most people seem to put a lot of energy into making a big, delicious ham. I think I will make Nigella’s Coca Cola Ham.
http://www.nigella.com/recipes/recipe.asp?article=149
Patricia Scarpin
I have never tried that recipe, Anna, and I’m bookmarking it right now! These look luscious!
TG
awesome photo
Debbi
That is quite the expensive toaster! 🙂
Alison
These look great – I’ll try them later. What do you eat in American over Easter? We have hot cross buns (yeast bread with fruit) and simnel cake (a light fruit cake with a layer of marzipan in the middle and on top, topped with 11 little balls of marzipan to represent the eleven disciples). I’d love to include something from your site for the weekend,what do you suggest?
steph
I just finished baking these cookies and followed the small batch recipe. They were really good, nice and thick but also crispy around the edges. I didn’t have espresso powder but substituted instant coffee granules(1 tsp), it seemed to work. It’s a large cookie, so I froze the rest of the dough into balls for another night.
Very yummy with milk! Thanx again